


what you want (is a little more confidance)

by cold_nights_summer_days



Series: Anchor [22]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Back to School, Comfortember 2020, Gen, Parent Tony Stark, Precious Peter Parker, day twenty-five
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27983709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cold_nights_summer_days/pseuds/cold_nights_summer_days
Summary: day twenty five: back to school/work - It's Peter's first day back at Midtown!
Relationships: Ned Leeds & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Anchor [22]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996039
Comments: 8
Kudos: 92
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	what you want (is a little more confidance)

**Author's Note:**

> so yes, I realize that it's now december 9th, but I wrote this for comfortember and then like disappeared for a hot minute and forgot to post it :D

Peter was already awake when Tony knocked on his bedroom door. Peter groaned in lieu of a response, and Tony slowly opened the door.

“Did you sleep at all last night?” He asked, shutting the door quietly behind him (Peter’s senses were sometimes more sensitive in the morning) and sitting on the edge of Peter’s bed. Tony didn’t miss the dark circles under his kid’s eyes, or the sigh that escaped him.

“For a little while. Probably about five hours,” Peter responded.

“If you didn’t sleep well I can tell the school that you won’t be starting today,” Tony started, but Peter shook his head. Despite how nervous he was, he wanted to go back to school. It was one more step towards normal, and he needed that. He wanted that.

“I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“I know, I’m just a little worried is all. Now that everyone knows, people will probably treat you differently. People who didn’t want to talk to you before will suddenly want to be your best friend, and just remember that you don’t have to talk to them if you don’t want to.” Peter nodded along, having heard this talk the night before, too. “And if you need anything, call me, okay?”

“I will,” Peter said, but he got the sense that Tony didn’t one hundred percent believe him on that. (To be fair, the last time Peter promised to call if he needed anything, he didn’t call until he was quite literally dying in an alleyway.)

“You better. I’m driving you there, by the way, so if you don’t want me to be embarrassing then you should be ready on time,” Tony said, standing up to leave. Peter rolled his eyes.

“What are you going to do? Carry me to school with the Iron Man armor?” 

“That’s exactly what I’ll do. You can’t be late for your first day of school! And also, don’t think that you’ll be escaping the first day of school picture, either. I’ve already got a frame for the living room picked out.” 

“Oh my god. Seriously?” 

Yep, seriously. I need something to embarrass you with down the line, and there’s nothing better than first day of school pictures.”

Peter smiled – a real, genuine smile—at the comment. _Down the line._ Down the line meant that he was going to be here for a long time, maybe even forever. Of course, Tony told him all the time, as often as he needed reassuring, that he wouldn’t even think of sending him back. Still, the reminder made him happy.

_Down the line._

The drive to Midtown was short, and Peter couldn’t decide if he was grateful or not. It was probably for the better since Tony almost made them late taking pictures by the door. Peter just wanted to get to the car, and Tony was hung up on the terrible lighting.

Once they were sitting in front of the building, Peter considered taking Tony’s offer of not starting today. His anxiety was worse than usual, but he knew it would be like that until he finally did it. Peter took a deep breath and moved to open the car door, but Tony stopped him.

“If you need anything, absolutely anything at all, call me. If it happens to be around twelve, that’s just a bonus, because I know that board meeting is going to be incredibly boring,” He said. “If all goes according to plan, I’ll be sitting right here when school’s over to pick you up.”

“Thanks,” Peter said quietly. There was more he wanted to say, but he didn’t think now was the time. Not when he needed to run inside so he didn’t miss the first bell and Tony had a meeting to be at in thirty minutes.

“Of course, kiddo. I’m always here, you know that. Have a good day.”

“You too," Peter said, opening the door and forcing himself to step out on the sidewalk. There were only a few straggling students outside to notice his arrival, and Peter did his best to ignore the weird stares they gave him. Running away, almost dying, and then being adopted by Tony Stark could really impact one’s social standing.

Inside wasn’t much better. There was most certainly too much noise and too many curious stares. Peter passed by everyone as quickly as he could, ducking into the school’s front office with a sense of relief. He refused the map that the receptionist tried to give him along with his new schedule. He didn’t see a need for it since he already knew where everything was.

The receptionist wished him good luck on his first day, and Peter took it gratefully. He was certain that he was going to need it.

First and second period passed slowly. The teachers had let Peter slip into the back of the classroom without much fanfare, simply announcing that he was starting today. Peter was infinitely grateful that neither of them had done forced introductions. A few of his classmates had turned around like they wanted to ask him questions during the lessons but had ultimately decided not to. Peter was grateful for that, too.

He hadn’t been so lucky in third period, though. Halfway through, a girl with black hair turned around in her chair and began to stare at him. Peter ignored her as best he could, focusing intently on his notes. After two minutes, the girl spoke.

“What’s it like?” She whispered, narrowing her eyes at him. Peter looked at her quizzically.

“What is what like?” He whispered back.

“Being adopted by Tony Stark,” The girl said it like it was the most obvious question in the world. Peter sighed.

“He hasn’t actually adopted me. He’s just my legal guardian right now,” Peter answered. He hoped that would be the end of it, but she just kept staring. Tony had warned him about this sort of thing, the extra attention. Peter hadn’t expected it to be like this though.

“What do you want?”

“My mom told me that he’s just doing this whole stunt for the press. Maybe that’s why he hasn’t actually adopted you. He’s just waiting until it’s faded from the news so he can get rid of you,” She said. Peter fought the urge to roll his eyes, but he couldn’t fight the uneasiness that settled in his stomach.

“He’s not going to get rid of me,” Peter replied. He thought back to the conversation they’d had just that morning. Down the line.”

“How do you know? I doubt he’d tell you that he was.”

“Because I do, okay? Now can you please stop staring at me so I can pay attention?” The girl turned around quickly, but not before shooting a glare towards him. Peter took a deep breath. This day was probably going to suck more than he thought it would.

Fourth and fifth period passed with only minimal embarrassment from nosy classmates asking annoying questions. _What was it like being homeless? What’s it like living with Tony Stark? What’s it like being famous now?_

“It sucked, pretty great, and not as much fun as you think it would be,” Peter would reply. The worst questions were the ones that asked him _why_ he ran away. For a school full of geniuses, none of them could quite figure out why Peter didn’t want to answer that question.

The real problems started at lunch. Peter was already overwhelmed from the first half of the day, and the noisy, crowded cafeteria didn’t help. He had noise cancelling headphones, but he didn’t want to draw more attention to himself from teachers or students.

Peter pushed away his food and laid his head down on the table. The faux wood was cool against his forehead, and if it weren’t so loud, it would have been a perfect time to take a nap. Peter briefly considered texting Tony, but he knew that he was in that board meeting now. Plus, he wanted to prove he could last the full day and that it wasn’t too early for him to go back to school.

At some point, Peter felt a light tap on his shoulder. He jumped at the contact, his fight instincts kicking in immediately. Ned and MJ were standing behind him with their hands in the air. Peter’s initial excitement at seeing them turned to guilt. He hadn’t known how to explain any of what happened at first, and then he didn’t want to deal with anyone else’s pity.

Overall, he hadn’t talked to them in months. He hadn’t talked to them since before Skip had happened. The weird thing was, neither of them looked like they were mad at him. Peter wasn’t exactly sure how to handle it.

“I’m sorry,” Ned said quickly. “I didn’t mean to scare you. We just saw you from across the room.”

Peter watched them, unsure of what to say. There were a million things he wanted to say but he couldn’t force any words out. MJ noticed, and filled the silence for him.

“Betty said she saw you earlier, but we didn’t believe her. We weren’t sure if you were going to come back to Midtown after . . . well, after moving in with Mr. Stark and everything,” She said. Peter simply nodded.

“I didn’t—I don’t—I’m sorry,” Peter forced out, trying and failing to form a complete sentence.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything. It must have been really difficult to go through that, and we get it if you don’t want to talk about it, but we just want you to know that we’re still here for you when you need us.”

“Thank you,” Peter whispered. Ned and MJ nodded before taking a seat across from him. He appreciated their support—even though he hadn’t talked to them in months—but he couldn’t look at them without feeling guilty. _They’d held out on me this whole time, and I spent all of it avoiding them._

The headache set in during sixth period. His English teacher was going on about the book the class was about to start reading, but Peter couldn’t focus on anything other than the pounding in his head. He must not have been hiding it very well because several of his classmates had glanced at him with pitiful expressions. (That might have just been coincidence since people had been looking at him like that all day).

Eventually, Peter raised his hand and asked to be excused to the office. The teacher, Mrs. Miller, nodded, and even told him not to worry about the homework for that day. He took his time on the way to the office, enjoying the relative silence of the hallway. Once he got there, he asked the receptionist if he could call Tony. She nodded and showed him into one of the empty offices they kept for just such occasions.

Peter felt the first tear slip out while he dialed Tony’s number. He’d just wanted to make it through the school day. Through _one_ day. Just one, and he couldn’t even do it. The questions, the stares, the noise, it was all too much. _Too much._

The phone only rang four times before Tony answered.

_“Hey, kiddo. How’s your day so far”?_ He asked.

“Not great, honestly,” Peter admitted, voice shakier than he would have liked it to be.

_“What happened?”_

“This girl in third period kept staring at me, and then I asked her why, and she told me that her mom is convinced that I’m just a publicity stunt and you’re waiting for the news to fade before dropping me back off at CPS. On top of that, people just keep asking me questions about what it was like being homeless or moving in with you and I don’t even know how to answer them.”

_“You don’t have to answer them if it’ll make you uncomfortable, you don’t owe them anything. Second, I am definitely not just waiting to send you back to CPS. You’re not a publicity stunt. I don’t know if this is the right time for this, but I’m not sure how else to explain it. I—I love you, Peter. I wouldn’t ever send you back.”_ Peter could hear the emotion in Tony’s voice and knew he wasn’t lying.

“Really?” Peter couldn’t help but ask.

_“Yes. I wouldn’t ever dream of sending you back, Peter, and I’ll keep telling you that as many times as you need to hear it. So, don’t listen to that girl, whoever she is, because she doesn’t know anything at all.”_

“I love you too,” Peter said, feeling a sense of relief. He’d been feeling that way for a while, but in the beginning, he wasn’t really sure what it was. It had been a long time since he remembered feeling that way.

_“You don’t have to say it back—wait, what?”_

“I love you too,” Peter repeated. Tony was quiet for a moment, but Peter heard him sigh in relief on the other end of the line.

_“Oh. Well, um, do you want me to pick you up early from school?”_

Peter knew he was deflecting, but not because he didn’t want to talk about it. In the time he’d spent living in the penthouse, he’d picked up on how difficult it was for Tony to talk about his emotions sometimes. Peter wasn’t mad. After all, he’d done the same thing before.

“Yeah,” Peter answered. He wasn’t so upset about not making it through the whole school day, now. Besides, he had a feeling there were more important things to be discussed at home. _At home._

Peter smiled at the thought. Yes, he had a home now. A real one that wasn’t going to send him away or abuse him or other things that he didn’t want to think about.

_A home._

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! This will be the last prompt that I'm filling for comfortember, unless something comes up in the future and I decide to change that <3


End file.
